After a part-time employee allegedly made off with more than $3,500 in cash from their business Sunday night, the owners of Bay Street Blues say they have been moved by support from the community.
A man who had been providing cleaning services to the downtown bar for 12 years stole the money and apparently left for California, said Bonnie Walden, who owns the bar with her daughter, Jessica.
Walden said she got back to the bar Sunday night and checked Facebook to find a post in which the man hinted that he’d taken something from a friend.
Walden checked a jar that was being used as a bank for her 8-year-old grandson as well as deposit areas in the office and discovered that more than $3,500 was missing, according to a Savannah-Chatham police report.
The 31-year-old man worked at Bay Street Blues on and off for about 12 years, Walden said.
“If the money goes to better his life, then so be it,” she said.
She says she had trusted the employee and doesn’t understand his actions.
“He’d be cleaning, and he’d find $5 siting on the floor and he’d leave it sitting on the bar,” she said Tuesday. “I don’t wish him any ill will, but he did a horrible thing.”
Metro police are investigating. The man who allegedly stole the money has not been charged with a crime.
In the meantime, the Waldens have received an outpouring of support.
Customers have set up a crowd-funding webpage to recoup the Waldens’ financial loss. As of early Wednesday afternoon, nearly $2,500 of the $3,500 goal had been reached, and additional money had been donated from patrons at the bar.
Walden said she’s overwhelmed and suspects the support comes from her bar’s history of raising money for charities each month.
“The first day I was crying because I was upset,” Walden said. “Today I’m crying because of all the things people are doing for us.”